Dual-core processing unit for single-chip robot control

Renesas Electronics Corporation launched the RZ/T2H, the highest-performance microprocessor (MPU) offered by Renesas for industrial equipment. Thanks to its powerful application processing and real-time performance, the RZ/T2H is capable of high-speed, high-precision control of industrial robot motors for up to 9 axes. It supports a variety of network communications including Industrial Ethernet on a single chip. The MPU targets industrial controller equipment such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), motion controllers, distributed control systems (DCSs), and computerized numerical controls (CNCs).

With the growing demand for unmanned and labor-saving manufacturing, industrial robots such as vertically articulated robots, and industrial controller equipment are being deployed to accelerate automated production. The Renesas RZ/T2H MPU combines all the functionality and performance required for developing these applications. While industrial systems traditionally required multiple MPUs or a combination of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) to control these applications, the RZ/T2H MPU can now meet all the requirements on a single chip. This reduces the number of components and saves time and costs of FPGA program development.

The RZ/T2H is equipped with four Arm Cortex-A55 application CPUs with a maximum operating frequency of 1.2 GHz. For external memory, it supports 32-bit LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM. Two Cortex-R52 CPUs with a maximum operating frequency of 1 GHz handle the real-time processing, with each core equipped with a total of 576 KB of high-capacity tightly coupled memory (TCM). This allows high CPU- and memory-intensive tasks such as running Linux applications, robot trajectory generation, and PLC sequence processing, to be executed on a single chip. At the same time, the RZ/T2H can handle fast and precise real-time control such as motor control and Industrial Ethernet protocol processing.

The Renesas RZ/T2H controls up to 9-axis servo motors in industrial robots with high-speed and accurate operation. The RZ/T2H comes with everything required for up to 9 axes of motor control including 3-phase PWM timers, delta-sigma interfaces for measuring current values, and encoder interfaces (A-format, EnDat, BiSS, Hyperface DSL, and FA-CODER are all supported). Furthermore, peripheral functions for motor control are placed on a Low Latency Peripheral Port (LLPP) bus of the Cortex-R52 real-time CPU core, allowing high-speed access from the CPU.

The RZ/T2H has four Ethernet ports, three Gigabit Ethernet MAC (GMAC), plus an Ethernet switch. It also supports EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, and the next-generation Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standard. The combination of these Ethernet switches and GMAC allows the MPU to support multiple Industrial Ethernet controllers and devices, providing flexibility to adapt to a wide range of controller requirements, such as upper-layer Ethernet communications.

The RZ/T2H comes with the Renesas Flexible Software Package (FSP), as with all Renesas MPUs, together with a Linux package that comes with long term support. An out-of-the-box multi-axis motor control evaluation solution is available including inverter boards for driving 9-axis motors, a multi-axis motor control software package, and Motion Utility Tool (a motor control software tool). Sample protocols for industrial Ethernet and software PLC package are also included to kick-start system development.

The RZ/T2H is available today. Renesas plans to release the new RZ/N2H device in Q1/2025, which offers the same performance as the RZ/T2H in a smaller package. This is ideal for industrial controller equipment such as PLCs and motion controllers.

The RZ/T2H is managed under the Product Longevity Program (PLP) for industrial equipment that requires long life cycles.